An endowment is a permanent fund supporting a purpose of your choosing. Depending on your individual passion or interest, your endowment, which provides funds in perpetuity, can be focused or wide-ranging. The principal of your gift is invested and grows over time, while quarterly distributions provide a steady, reliable source of income to the program you choose. This ensures your gift will provide benefits year after year, generation after generation.

Walter L. and Rosemary S. Berg University Archivist Endowed Fund

The purpose of the Endowment is to support the work of the UW Libraries University Archivist, and to enhance the University's ability to recruit and retain a University Archivist.

Rosemary Sue (nee Bell) Berg (1922-1985) was born in Corvallis, Oregon. She graduated from North Salem High School in 1940 and worked as a stenographer for two years to save money for college. Rosemary enrolled in Oregon State College in 1942 and joined Alpha Chi Omega sorority, leaving after nearly two years, having exhausted her savings. Later she attended Willamette Univ. for three semesters while working and living at home.

Water and Rosemary met in the Salem, Oregon USO in 1944, just before he left for Midshipmen's School in the U.S. Navy. They were married in 1946 after he returned from the war.

Growing up in a pre-feminist age, Rosemary was not burdened with having to have a career. In a sense, her career was aiding her husband. When Walter entered UW graduate school in 1946, Rosemary went to work as secretary to provide survival income. After their first child was born, Rosemary stopped working only to return to work when her husband's teaching assistantship expired. For two years she worked as office manager of North Salem High School. while her husband studied for his Ph.D. exams and did research for his dissertation.

Rosemary is remembered as a generous and vivacious lady who took great pleasure in providing a comfortable home for her husband and three children. Rosemary liked to entertain and her Danish and German food preparations were much appreciated by guests. It is lamentable that Rosemary died prematurely of pancreatic cancer at age 63.